First of all, a rousing happy birthday to my mother...who probably won't read this site for another eight months now that football season is over...kidding...

Need your Alamo Bowl Champs gear?  Look no further!

Lingering Alamo Bowl links...

• KC Star (Upon Further Review blog): Alamo Bowl coda - It's okay to be excited

  The Tigers were fortunate to win the game. The fact that they were happy to have done so, rather than hanging their heads in shame, is only a natural reaction to winning a tough competition. That they were able to win while playing at less than their optimum level is a credit to their preserverance and proof positive that they wanted to win just as bad as Northwestern.

  The problem here is expectation. This is a trap I fell into myself this season. I wanted Mizzou to be a national title contender so badly that it clouded my judgement. Simply put, the team was overrated. This was not a national championship-caliber team. They aren't physical enough on the line of scrimmage on either side of the football and their secondary simply cannot cover against even an average passing attack.

  That's not to say that things couldn't have broken the Tigers' way. If Chase Daniel hadn't thrown that last interception against Oklahoma State, if they hadn't played so poorly in the first half against Texas, if they had gotten a stop against Todd Reesing and Kansas and if someone besides Oklahoma had squeezed into the Big 12 title game, who knows? Maybe Mizzou is prepping right now to get peppered by Florida.

• The Trib: Satisfaction the Hard Way
• PowerMizzou: Tuesday's Top Tigers
• PowerMizzou: Alamo Bowl Grades
• Mizzourah: An Alamo That Was Impossible to Forget
• Atomic Teeth: The Curious Case of Chase Daniel
• Chicago Tribune: Pat Fitzgerald doesn't accept moral victories
  
• Chicago Tribune: Corey Wootton injury considered serious

With the 2008 season in the rearview mirror, it's time for MU football to start looking toward the future.  Or, you could say, the torch is passed...

Several Mizzou teams of the past, mostly in the Dan Devine era, had higher winning percentages or lost fewer games.

But in a more contemporary context, only Oklahoma has won more games, 23, than MU in 2007 and 2008. Southern California can match OU if it beats Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

Pinkel could go "on and on and on" about the group, he said, including the fact that each is expected to have graduated by spring.

"The good news is that it just sets the bar higher for the next group, which is awesome," Pinkel said.

Future Tiger Sheldon Richardson: U.S. Army All-American Game captain.

Finally...Tigers-Gents links!

• Mutigers.com: official release (and box score)
• The Trib: MU leans on starters to top Centenary
• The Missourian: Tiller and Taylor create opportunities for Tigers
• The Missourian: Laurence Bowers makes plays in limited minutes
• KC Star: Tigers cruise past Centenary
• Post-Dispatch: Tigers take care of Gents